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INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Paper 1 Theory For Examination from 2017
SPECIMEN PAPER
1 hour 45 minutes
Candidates answer on the Question Paper.
No Additional Materials are required.
Write your Centre number, candidate number and name in the spaces at the top of this page.
Write in dark blue or black pen.
You may use an HB pencil for any diagrams or graphs.
Do not use staples, paper clips, glue or correction fluid.
DO NOT WRITE IN ANY BARCODES.
At the end of the examination, fasten all your work securely together.
The number of marks is given in brackets [ ] at the end of each question or part question.
True and false are examples of Boolean data
A field containing the value 253 would be a fi eld containing text data
245.6 is an integer
All numbers are stored as decimals
‘13 cm’ is an example of alphanumeric data
An integer stored in a field is a form of numeric value
Currency is a type of numeric data
A real number is an integer which has already been used in a database
How many times a student has taken an exam would be stored as a
Date/time data type
A percentage value is usually stored as text as it has a percentage sign
[4]
2 There are many ways of changing data to suit a purpose including coding, encoding and
encryption of data. Coding data in a field containing the gender of a person, for example, would
involve coding ‘male’ as ‘m’ and ‘female’ as ‘f’.
A disadvantage of coding data is that it makes the data very difficult to read and
understand
An advantage of coding data is that it saves storage space
A disadvantage of coding data is that it becomes much slower to type in the data
An advantage of coding data is that codes are never complicated
[1]
Encoding data is a form of validation
Text and numbers are the only data types that can be encoded
Converting digital data to analogue data is a form of encoding data
Encoding is done to deliberately conceal the content of the data
[1]
Encrypting data prevents hackers from intercepting it
Encryption is the conversion of data into a form that cannot be easily
understood by unauthorised users
The two main types of encryption are known as public key encryption and open
encryption
Decryption is the process of further converting encrypted data into another more
complicated encrypted form
[1]
-System software refers to the operating system and all utility programs that
manage computer resources
-System software includes BIOS, compilers, interpreters, system utilities (must
have two)
-System software is a type of computer program that is designed to run a
computer’s hardware and application programs
5 Here is a small section of a spreadsheet used to calculate the weekly wages of the workers in a
company.
A B C D E F
1 First Second Hours worked Hourly rate Weekly wage ($) Full
name name name
2 John Smith 40 8.50 =C2*D2
3 Johann Schmidt 42 9.25 =C3*D3
4 Felix Schnell 38 8.75 =C4*D4
5 Maurice LaPorte 46 11.50 =C5*D5
=SUM(C2:C5) =MAX(D2:D5) =AVERAGE(E2:E5)
(a) Using examples from the spreadsheet, explain what is meant by a cell reference.
(b) This spreadsheet uses formulae and functions. Explain the difference between formulae and
functions.
(c) The manager of the company wants the full name of the worker printed on the payslip. In
order to do this a formula will need to be used in cell F2 combining the first name and the
second name separated by a space.
Write down the formula which uses a function to combine this data.
=CONCATENATE(A2,“ ”,B2)
1 mark for CONCATENATE
1 mark for A2
1 mark for “ ”
1 mark for B2
(d) The manager wants to see immediately if a worker earns more than $500 per week, without
reading through the spreadsheet.
Explain what you would do in cells E2 to E5 to make it easier for her to see this.
(e) Relative cell referencing has been used in the spreadsheet. Using examples from this
spreadsheet, explain why the use of absolute referencing would not be suitable.
(f) This spreadsheet could be used for modelling purposes. An example of modelling is the use
of simulators for pilot training.
Describe three advantages of using computer simulations for pilot training rather than the
real thing.
-If the plane crashed in real life the pilot might die whereas nothing would
happen to him/her in a simulator
-If the plane crashed in real life the plane would cost a lot to replace whereas
nothing would happen to the simulator
-Extreme weather conditions can be made to order in a simulator but you
might have to wait a long time for them to happen in real life
6 A shop selling Konia mobile (cell) phones keeps records of all the phones it sells.
The shop only stocks three models but each model has either 32 or 64 GB of memory.
An example of the shop’s database is given below.
(a) A validation check is needed to make sure that only valid model numbers can be
accepted. Name this validation check and describe how it would work.
(b) Giving examples, explain how consistency checks could be used to ensure that the data that
is entered in the shop’s database is valid.
(c) The shop is sending a standard letter to owners of the 1278C6 model informing them about
a defect.
Using information from the shop’s database, explain how you would set up such a letter to
customers who own that particular model.
(d) The data in the shop’s database is in unnormalised form. Complete the table below as
necessary to make the database in first normal form (1NF).
Memory
Model Price ($)
(GB)
1273C3 300 32
1273C6 400 64
1275C3 350 32
1275C6 450 64
1278C3 500 32
1278C6 600 64
[4]
-Data is not repeated/no redundant data improving data integrity and reducing
errors
-Data is not repeated/no redundant data saving storage space
7 A head teacher wishes to use a computer to create a newsletter which will keep parents up to
date with events at the school.
(a) There are a number of malware issues associated with using the internet.
Other than viruses, describe three of these issues.
(b) Discuss the reasons why many people use the internet for communication, while some
people do not.
(c) Explain what is meant by the internet and the World Wide Web. In your answer include
features of the internet which do not use the World Wide Web.
The compiler’s conversion is made just once and after that the same binary
code can be distributed to the user’s machines where it can be executed
without further translation thereby saving time compared to an interpreted
program
Whereas an interpreted program is distributed as source code so it needs
to be translated in each final machine, which takes more time than using
compiled code…
…however this does make the program distribution independent of the
machine’s architecture whereas the compiled version will only run on
machines with a specific processor’s architecture, thus making it less portable
than interpreted code
Compiled object code makes it easier to protect intellectual property as the
machine code is difficult to understand whereas interpreted code can easily
be read and copied by humans
It generally takes longer to run a program under an interpreter than to run the
compiled code because the interpreter must analyse each statement in the
program each time it is executed…
…but it can take less time to interpret it than the total time required to compile
and run it
Compiler generates the error report after the translation of the entire page
while an interpreter will stop the translation after it gets the first error making it
easier to debug
An interpreter uses less memory as source code only has to be present
one line at a time in memory whereas with a compiler all the execution code
needs to be loaded into memory
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